Magic GM to Cavs: Whatever worked, do it again

By MARY SCHMITT BOYER

Cleveland Plain Dealer

Cleveland

As the only general manager to win the NBA lottery in back-to-back years, former Orlando GM Pat Williams has some advice for the Cavaliers, who are trying to double up on landing last year’s No. 1 pick.

“Whatever worked last year, try it again,” said Williams, whose Magic claimed the top spot in 1992 and 1993.

Referring to Cavs owner Dan Gilbert’s 15-year-old son Nick, who will represent the team on stage again during Wednesday night’s televised lottery, Williams said, “The young boy who touched the hearts of America? If I were in their shoes, I would do an exact repeat. I’d have the same clothes. I’d have everything. I would try to see if I could have lightning strike twice.”

Even before hearing Williams’ suggestions, the Cavs planned to copy many of the aspects of last year’s lottery experience, which resulted in acquiring point guard Kyrie Irving, recently named the league’s Rookie of the Year.

Oddly enough, Williams didn’t take his own advice in 1993. The Magic had made Shaquille O’Neal the No. 1 pick in 1992 and just missed making the playoffs in 1993.

“We lost out of the playoffs by the fifth tiebreaker,” Williams said. “So we go in with one pingpong ball. Back in those days, you could understand how the lottery worked. The year before, we had 10 of 66 pingpong balls.”

In the 1990 lottery, a weighted system was introduced for the 11 teams that missed the playoffs. (Because of expansion, there are now 14 teams in the lottery.) The team with the worst record during the regular season — in 1992, that was Minnesota at 15-67 — received 11 chances at the top pick (out of a total of 66). The second-worst team — in 1992, that was Orlando at 21-61 — got 10 chances.

When the Magic went 41-41 in 1993, Williams figured he had no chance in the lottery. Whereas in the past, he’d taken an assortment of good-luck charms with him, in 1993, he went empty-handed.

“Over the years, we took everything,” recalled Williams, now a senior vice president with the Magic who is also a cancer survivor, prolific author and popular guest speaker. “We took rabbit’s feet. We took Lucky Charms cereal. We took big bags of pingpong balls. But I found in ‘92, the best thing that worked were losses. They worked a lot better than rabbit’s feet. They’re not fun going through, but come May in Secaucus, the best thing you have going for you are lots of Ls.

“In 92, there were 11 teams there with Shaq jerseys made up. I remember when we got turned over at one, you could hear the rustling of those jerseys being stuffed back into paper bags.

“But in 93, it was a wasted trip in my mind — no charms, no clovers, no Lucky Charms cereal, none whatsoever. I remember going very reluctantly. I was just going to go up, sit there, wasted trip, come home, pick 11th.”

While the NBA lists the odds of each pick for each team in the lottery this season, there are no odds for a team winning back-to-back lotteries.

“There was nobody real thrilled for us,” said Williams, who also won the lottery in 2004 and used the No. 1 pick on Dwight Howard. “But Orlando was changed forever.”